Tuesday 9^th July 2019

We took Aaron off for a cruise, with him doing most of the steering. Through Bradford Lock and as far as Semington where we stopped at the site of the abandoned junction with the Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal. We walked up into Semington and had lunch at the Somerset Arms. There was a funeral wake held while we were there, for a young biker. His pals, on their bikes, did a burn up the road outside the pub in his memory. Good for them.

We winded and retraced our steps, back through Bradford to Avoncliffe. We had wanted to moor before the aqueduct, but there were dogs from a boat running free and Aaron thought they would spook Harris, so we continued across the aqueduct only to find a submerged ledge sticking out about 2 feet from the bank. We finished up badly grounded on this with a dramatic list. It took some extracting. Eventually, we had to turn in the aqueduct approaches and return to where we were to moor in the first place.

Then it was straight in to the Cross Guns pub for their weekly folk night that we had heard so much about. The Cross Guns is supposedly one of the most attractive pubs on the K&A with its low ceilings, stone walls, flagged floors and terraced gardens down to the river side. The singing, without any musical back-up, was remarkable. Just six boaters and as many of the pub patrons as wanted to join in. With lots of sea shanties, it was a great night.